


Tuna Salad

by MamaBear7319



Series: The Happier, Friendlier Timeline (2014) [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Iron Dad, Ned Is In Trouble, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:14:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26921218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamaBear7319/pseuds/MamaBear7319
Summary: Peter gets a coded message from Ned while he’s at a summer camp.  Luckily he’s got some friends that can help locate Ned.  The mission gets complicated when a computer worm mutates and starts fighting back.
Series: The Happier, Friendlier Timeline (2014) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1934734
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	1. NedsInTroubleAndINeedHelp

**Author's Note:**

> **Posting all at once. This one has a little more action than the last story so I’m curious to know if the pacing it better if it’s all at once or spread out. ******
> 
> **  
> **  
> **Comments are always appreciated! ********  
> **  
> 

_”I hope we have tuna salad tomorrow. You know how much I love it."_

Peter stared at the message from Ned. Swallowing, he thought about what his response should be. Settling on simple he started his response.

_"I haven't had tuna salad in ages. Maybe I'll see if we can have it tomorrow too. We had pizza, pepperoni, no peppers."_

Peter cringed. It was a terrible response but he needed to wrap this up and try to glean some info.

_”Pepperoni is awesome. Definitely no peppers. Gotta go, talk tomorrow"_

"FRIDAY, tell Tony I'm headed his way. It's an emergency. And tell Pepper I'm sorry. Oh, and see if you can track Ned's cellphone?" Peter tore his door open and ran down the hall to Tony's door. Hopefully it was enough of a heads up that he wasn't interrupting anything. Almost happening once was more than enough. Tony pulled the door open as Peter skidded to a stop in front of him.

"Ned'sintroubleIneedhelp." Peter pulled the messages up and handed it to Tony.

Tony scanned the messages, "You hate tuna salad. And what's the pepperoni comment?"

"Code words. When Ned first became the 'Guy In The Chair' he thought I should have a code word in case I was ever in trouble and couldn't say 'I'm in trouble'. He came up with tuna salad because we both hate it. We thought it was innocuous enough that no one would think it was weird. Never thought he'd be the one using it. He's supposed to be at a coding camp." Leaned to look past Tony, he looked at Pepper with a chagrined look, "Pepper, sorry if I woke you up or whatever."

Pepper leaned over Tony's shoulder and smiled. "It's fine. Tony, I think the pepperoni comment is telling Peter to bring you." She saw the confusion on his face, "Pepperoni, no peppers. Pepper and Tony minus the Pepper." She smiled when Tony rolled his eyes. "You two look into it. I'll stay out of your hair. Let me know if you need anything and let me know if you leave." She kissed Tony on the cheek, then turned and pressed her hand against Peter's cheek. "He'll be ok."

Peter smiled at Pepper and watched her walk back into the bedroom. "Sorry Tony, I just didn't think I could do this on my own, plus I think it's out of state and I'm pretty sure you'd be supper pissed if I stole the Quinjet and it would take me too long to swing there...". He paused when he saw the look on Tony's face. A mixture of relief, panic, and humor. "What?"

"First of all, let's take this to the command center...better equipment than the kitchen. Second, you don't know how to fly the Quinjet, although flying lessons may be a good idea...with ground rules. Third, " Tony paused, and wrapped his arm around Peter's shoulder as they headed to the command center, "I'm glad you asked for help." Pulling open the door to the command center he flipped on the lights. "FRIDAY, see if you can track Ned's cell phone."

"Peter has already initiated tracking. I'm having trouble pinpointing a location. He is somewhere in this general area." A hologram floated above the table showing eastern Pennsylvania.

"That's weird, right?" Peter looked at the map. "She should be able to track a cell phone?" He glanced over at Tony and saw the frown on his face.

"Yeah, it's weird. He's obviously getting a signal out because he texted you but there's something preventing FRIDAY from pinpointing the location." His fingers flew across the hologram sliding boxes around.

XXXXXXXXXX

Bucky stood in the doorway of the command center, ice cream spoon in his mouth. Tony and Peter, both in pajama pants, tshirts, and socks, had holograms pulled up, both diligently working on...something. He pulled the spoon out of his mouth. "What's up guys? You look like you do when you're in the lab but you're not...in the lab."

Tony and Peter looked up at the interruption. Frowning, Tony replied, "We may have a situation. Pete got a text from his friend that made us think he's in trouble."

Peter pushed the hologram he was working on out of the way with a frustrated swish of his hand. "And we can't seem to pinpoint his cellphone's location."

Bucky, stepped closer to the map displayed over the table. "Which pretty much confirms your suspicions? How long have you been at it?"

Tony and Peter nodded in unison. Peter grumbled out "Two hours" before returning his eyes to the hologram in front of him.

"Need some help?"

Tony pushed a hologram to Bucky. "See if you see anything we missed. That's everything we can find about the camp Ned was supposed to be at and the texts from him since he's been there."

XXXXXXXXXX

Natasha walked into the command center a couple hours later and surveyed the scene in front of her. Bucky was leaning on the table flipping through tax records on a screen? Maybe? Tony was writing code. And Peter was...pacing on the ceiling. "Did someone forget to invite me to the party?"

Tony and Bucky looked up. Peter flipped off of the ceiling and landed lightly, not even drawing a look from the other two which told Natasha they weren't making progress on whatever it was they were working on and that Peter had been on the ceiling for a while, which he tended to do when he was stuck on something or frustrated.

"Ned sent Pete a text that makes us think he's in trouble. We've been trying to trace his cell phone to locate him and it's being blocked." Tony ran his hand across his face. "I'm rewriting the algorithm to try to break past whatever is muffling the signal. Underoos is frustrated at the lack of progress and can't figure out what to do to help and refuses to go to bed."

"The fact the the signal is 'muffled' makes us think that the kid is definitely in trouble." Bucky sat back in his chair and looked up at Natasha who had stepped closer to the screen he was looking at.

"Ok, Peter, give me what you have on where we think Ned is. Bucky, show me what you've done so far. Tony, keep doing whatever it is that you're doing." Natasha grinned at Tony as she sat down next to Bucky. She and Tony has vastly different ways of looking for information. Tony relied solely on technology. She preferred a hybrid approach. So often it was the gut feeling you had when you saw something that actually led you down the path you needed to be on, although technology certainly made things easier. Peter ran through what he knew about the coding camp and the texts he had received from Ned since he'd been there. "How did he find out about the camp?"

"There was a 'summer internship/continuing education' fair at the school right after Spring Break. The school counselors set up kind of like interviews for all of the kids and matched them up with their strengths and interests." Peter flopped into a chair next to Natasha. "We already hacked into the school to see if we could get more information." He pushed a hologram up and tapped on a file that brought up the exhibitors. "That's the coding camp." Peter tapped on a name and brought up another file. 

Natasha looked at the name and pulled a keyboard towards her and started typing. "Who did they hook you up with?" Natasha didn't move her eyes from the screen in front of her.

"They did it when I was here recovering."

"Plus, the kid doesn't need an internship." Tony scowled not even looking up from his screen


	2. Where’s Ned?

"I think I've got it narrowed down." Tony pushed a screen to Natasha and Bucky. Peter leaned between Natasha and Bucky to look at the newly formed area.

"And I think I know who's we're up against." Natasha flipped her laptop screen to the hologram next to Tony's new map.

"Ok, that's still a really big area and ...", Peter gaped at Natasha's information, "Who the hell is Lyle Getz?"

"Did you all have a pajama party last night?" Steve and Sam stepped into the room dressed in shorts and t-shirts obviously on their way to their morning run. Bucky, Natasha, Tony, and Peter still in pajama bottoms and t-shirts, or in Natasha's case a tank top.

"Yeah, you missed out on all the fun." Natasha pulled up information on Lyle Getz. "It looks like Ned may have found himself some trouble." She stood up from her chair and let Steve sit down to look at the information she had pulled up. "I'm going to grab Clint. We'll recon the area and see if we can find his location based on the narrowed down map. We'll let you know when we find it and report back on Ned's status." 

Steve and Tony nodded. Peter opened his mouth to object but before he could get a word out Steve cut him off. "You've been up all night, right? You're not going."

Tony grabbed Peter's arm and herded him towards the door. "Steve's right. Let Nat and Clint do some reconnaissance. When they find him we can make a plan and get to Ned. There's nothing else we can do so why don't we all grab something to eat while we wait."

Peter started to protest but again was cut off before he could get a word out. Steve looked at him almost apologetically, "It's non-optional. If you want to even think about coming with us you have to eat and get some sleep."

Tony led him to the kitchen knowing that Bucky and Sam were following behind. Peter sat down in one of the stools at the counter and watched the three men wordlessly start preparing omelets. Looking at his phone he realized it was almost 7am. Ned had mentioned earlier in the week that breakfast at the camp was at 7:30. He had been texting Peter every morning between 7:00 and 7:15. He kept his eyes on his phone waiting for a message to pop up that would tell him Ned was ok. Out of his peripheral vision he saw a mug of hot chocolate placed in front of him. On automatic pilot he picked it up and started sipping. An omelet appeared in front of him at some point, his eyes not moving from his phone. Still on autopilot he finished everything on the plate in front of him. At 7:30, breakfast eaten, hot chocolate finished, he slid his phone across the counter and looked over at Tony.

Bucky was the one that spoke. "Peter, even if he's been compromised the chances of them doing anything are very low. There's no upside. Nat and Clint will locate the facility and we'll go get him."

Peter nodded, acknowledging Bucky's statement but it didn't stop the worry.

"Kiddo, hit the couch. I'll be there in a sec."

Tony watched Peter pull himself out of the chair and move numbly to the couch. He turned to Sam and Bucky who were finishing cleaning up from breakfast. Sam looked up from dishwasher where he was putting the last plate in. "How are you going to get him to get some sleep?"

Tony grinned, "The one thing I have figured out how to do over the last year is how to get the kid to sleep. FRIDAY, initiate Sleeping Baby protocol, adjust for living room." Leaving Bucky and Sam, Tony stopped to grab a blanket off of a chair and threw it over Peter as he settled on the couch next to him. FRIDAY had already turned a movie on. Windows tinted and lights dimmed it was comfortable but not dark.

Peter nestled against Tony's side. "I know what you're doing." He glanced over at Tony. "Thanks."

Moving his arm around Peter's shoulders he ran his fingers through Peter's curls that were just now growing back. Closing his eyes he replied, "No problem Spider Kid."

XXXXXXXXXX

Steve glanced up when Sam walked back into the command center. "Any chance they're sleeping?"

Sam nodded, "Bucky headed back to his room and Tony and Peter are asleep on the couch."

"FRIDAY, restrict access to the common area until Tony and Peter wake up."

Sam pulled over a copy of the file Steve was reviewing. "What are we looking at?"

"Lyle Getz. Former AIM operative. Former Hydra operative. Former SHIELD asset. The guy gets around. Computer genius. His SHEILD file says he has leanings towards world domination by way of artificial intelligence. Stuff that reminds me of Ultron, or an evil version of Vision. George Tarleton is another name that cropped up on some tax records of a likely spot for this camp." Steve leaned forward resting his elbows on the table waiting for Sam to finish reading.

Sam shut the file. "So this is going to be more of a brute strength attack rather than our normal disable security measures and surprise them when we're already inside?"

Steve nodded. "I doubt FRIDAY is going to be effective. It'll help when Nat and Clint can give us on the ground intel. Til then, there's not much we can do."

XXXXXXXXXX

Images started to roll across the screen in front of Steve. Natasha and Clint had located the facility. They hadn't actually seen Ned but they had caught sight of kids the same age. FRIDAY had pulled satellite video from the past couple days and had managed to spot Ned when everyone had arrived Sunday afternoon.

"Clint remained in place and is monitoring. Security is incredibly tight and I don't think we've seen everything yet. I think we're probably looking at dual entry. Let Tony, Rhodey, and Sam make an aerial attack while the rest of us go in on foot." Natasha sat back and looked at Steve in the video screen. "We're going to have to bring SHIELD in for cleanup."

Steve gave Natasha a sarcastic smile. "Well look at the bright side. It's really remote so other than the twenty kids on the inside we don't have to worry about containment or it spilling out into a public area."

"I've asked FRIDAY to find what she can about the interior. If we can figure out where they're housed we can limit their exposure. It is a little bothersome that we haven't spotted Ned. The other kids aren't being kept inside. We've seen maybe 16 different one walking around which means Ned and three others are being kept separate."

Steve sighed. He really didn't want to have to tell Peter that piece of information. If they were being kept separate it was for a reason. "A night time assault makes sense. Go in at maybe 2am."

"Agreed. Patch me in when you're going through the briefing. I'll brief Clint in person."

Steve waiting until Natasha had disconnected before looking at Sam. "Vision and Wanda are still out of the country, aren't they?"

"Not due back for a couple days. Want me to call them?" Sam leaned back in the chair next to Steve's.

"They couldn't get here in time. The fact that Clint hasn't seen Ned is worrying me. He obviously knew something was wrong. If he got caught doing something...let's just say I'd rather get in there tonight than wait." Steve pulled up an aerial view of the facility. "Let's get a plan figured out. I want to let Tony and Peter sleep as long as possible before waking them but we're starting to get tight on time if we want to go tonight."

XXXXXXXXXX

Steve set his shoulders and looked at Tony and Peter. "I think I know what the response is going to be but I think both of you should sit this one out."

Tony rested his hand on Peter's back, "Peter, I agree with Cap. You've only been at full strength for about a month and you're emotionally invested."

Before Peter could launch his reasons, Steve replied, "Both of you."

Tony stared at Steve, "Why would I sit out?"

Peter crossed his arms, "I'm going."

Steve shook his head, "Peter, Tony is right. You're emotionally invested. It can make anyone sloppy." With an emphasis on anyone, Steve met Tony's eyes.

"No. First off, I have been cleared by Dr. Cho and Dr. Strange. Second, you all should be giving me positive reinforcement. I actually asked for help instead of trying to handle it myself. I think everyone would agree that I don't always have the best track record with asking for help." Peter's eyes challenged Steve's.

"Like I said, I knew what your answers would be. Peter, you're on the ground with Natasha, Bucky, and myself. Tony, you're in the air with Rhodey and Sam. Clint will take high ground."

Peter turned to Tony, "I'm going."

"Fine. You're wearing the Iron Spider suit."

Knowing there was no arguing, Peter nodded.

XXXXXXXXXX

Tony stood at the back of the room and watched Peter review the ops plan with Steve. Peter was offering really good input. Rhodey slid next to Tony. "Still trying to figure out how to stop him from going?"

Tony shook his head, "No. Doesn't mean I'm happy about it though. What I'm trying to figure out is when that happened." He nudged his head toward Peter and Steve.

Rhodey knitted his brow in confusion. Prompting Tony to elaborate. "He's holding his own in planning with Steve."

Rhodey smiled, "He's got a strategic mind. He just didn't have the confidence to show it before. You gave him that."

"Yeah, maybe. I want to take it back through. No almost 16 year old should be planning an op like this."


	3. Shoot To Thrill

Peter's Iron Spider suit formed around him as the Quinjet landed and the ramp lowered. They had to set down a fair distance from the facility. Security for the facility included radar which meant the Quinjet, even with all of its stealth technology might be detected. As planned Steve, Bucky, Natasha, and Peter headed out on foot. Tony, Rhodey, and Sam would attack from the air.

Tony hated the plan. Tactically he knew it was a good plan and their best option but he hated Peter being so far away from him. It was one thing if Peter was on containment but this was entirely different. Peter was going to be in the thick of things.

"Tony, you have got to stop pacing." Rhodey stood in front of Tony's current path in the aisle of the Quinjet. "He'll be fine."

Tony glared at Rhodey. "What's the count down?"

"20 minutes. Natasha is slowing them down." Sam called from his seat In the cockpit.

"I'm going to tell her you said that." Rhodey taunted back.

XXXXXXXXXX

Natasha and Steve crouched in the tree-line in front of the facility. Bucky and Peter waited behind them, all four observing their target. A chain link fence surrounded it. They had a plan. It was a good plan. They had made good time. Clint had managed to get into position inside the fence. They were all on radio silence until they started their incursion but hopefully Clint had gotten enough intel that he could let the team know where all of the kids were located.

Steve held up two fingers indicating the 2 minute count down. They would move as soon as they heard Tony, Rhodey, and Sam. Once inside, neutralization was the primary goal. If Clint had located the kids, there was an alternative plan to send Bucky and Peter toward them to keep them safe but it was very much a game time call. Knocking down the opposition quickly was the best way to keep everyone safe.

The aerial assault team would take care of the guards on the roof and on the grounds. The ground team was heading inside the building immediately. Take care of the guards. Find the kids. Find Getz and Tarleton if they could.

Peter looked up when he heard a repulsor whirl above him. The roof of the building lit up as Iron Man, War Machine, and Falcon concentrated their fire power on the roof guards. Tony knew how to put on a show. Peter's mask automatically adjusted for the change in brightness. The guards on the ground turned their attention toward the roof which allowed the ground team to enter unopposed.

The facility itself had a big open area in the center with rooms and halls on the sides. Clint started giving them intel. There was a control room at the back of the open area. He hadn't been able to get in but based on the number of cameras he had spotted he thought that they all probably fed into the room. The control room became their primary focus. If they could get there, they could find the kids and it would give them the upper hand on the guards.

For a kids camp, the guards had a ridiculous amount of firepower. For a maximum security prison the guards had a ridiculous amount of firepower. Peter ran through his options. He could plot a path that would allow him to swing with enough velocity to not only get to the control room but also go through the glass. The problem was Karen only gave him a 20% chance of making before getting shot down. "Karen, can you paint the targets that have the highest probability of shooting us down? And, can you do something about the volume?"

Targets lit up on his HUD. "Peter, your mask is muted as much as it can be. See if this works." Karen started playing music. It was one of the lab playlists. "Thanks Karen." The music was actually enough for his mind to focus on it and not the gunfire going on around him. "How's Tony doing?" Peter started methodically firing webs at the painted targets on his HUD to start clearing a path.

"Mr. Stark gave strict instructions that I am not supposed to feed you information on his status because he was concerned that it would distract you. But he's fine. He, War Machine, and Falcon are still outside."

Peter smiled. Tony was ok. He glanced over to where Natasha was crouched behind a low wall. "Nat, I can get to the control room but I need some cover fire."

"Can you get me there too?"

Peter ran the math in his head. He could adjust for the extra weight. "Yeah, but I can't hold on to you. You're going to have to hold on to me."

Steve glanced over at Peter and Natasha. "Seriously?"

"It'll be fine. You and Bucky focus on the clearing a path." She looked over at Peter. "Ready?"

Peter nodded. "We've got to go up first. It'll be easier if I climb and then yank you up." Without waiting for a response he scampered up the wall, webbing up two guards in his way on the 2nd floor catwalk overlooking the open area. Once we was over the railing he leaned over and tagged Natasha with a web and pulled.

Natasha used the momentum Peter gave her and ran up the wall. Reaching the railing she pulled herself up and landed next to Peter who was perched on the rail. "You're sure about this."

"As long as you hold on."

Natasha pulled both guns out and wrapped her arms around Peter's neck and her legs around his waist. "Tell me if I need to shift."" Are you listening to music?" She asked incredulously.

Peter flicked his wrist to shoot a web and start their way toward the control room. "It helps me concentrate with all the noise." He was aware that she was taking out targets as they swung towards the end of the room. He was also aware that they had a significant amount of ground support as well. He saw Cap's shield knock down an entire section of one of the catwalks. As they got toward the last swing he centered Natasha on his front in preparation to crash through the window. Karen had already confirmed they had enough momentum to break the glass. The extra weight actually made it easier. Feet first they crashed through the window.

Landing on his back Peter immediately threw his arms out to the side and webbed up as many guards as he could. He knew Natasha had done the same, although her method was a little louder and a lot more lethal.

Sounds settled and all Natasha could hear was the end of "Shoot To Thrill" coming from Peter's mask. Shaking her head and grinning she pushed herself off Peter and headed to the monitors.

Peter flipped up and headed to the other set of monitors. "Got them. There are three sub-levels. One has a lot of cooling systems. That'll be the mainframe for whatever they're doing. The students are one level down." He looked up as Iron Man landed in the middle of the debris. "Everything ok out there?"

"Peachy." He didn't flinch when War Machine lit up part of the cat walk outside of the control room. The guards outside had been taken care of so Falcon, War Machine, and Iron Man had headed inside to support the rest of the team. Tony had entered just in time to see Peter and Natasha crash through the control room windows.

One of the ground rules was that Peter and Tony were not allowed to ask each other if they were ok until it was over. Peter had brought it up first but Tony actually fully supported it. Peter looked back at the monitors and started typing on the keyboard in front of them changing what was displayed on the monitors. "Students are one level down. Looks like maybe 10 rooms, two per room. I count six guard on the floor but the cameras might not be picking everyone up." He looked back to the open area behind them and frowned. "Stairwells in the corners? I didn't see an elevator but there has to be one."

Natasha walked over to the duo. "Mainframe is below that. Not a lot of cameras on the third subfloor. Some of it looks like workspace but it's dark."

"I want to clear the guards out before we start moving kids around." Tony looked at Natasha. "When is SHIELD getting here." They needed SHIELD's help but he also didn't want them to have access to Peter.  
"They've set up a perimeter and won't move in until we give them the ok. I'll grab Clint and Bucky. We'll work our way up from the bottom floor."

Tony pushed open the stairwell door to the floor that housed the students. Peter was crouched in front of him. Three of the guards fired towards them, bullets bouncing off the Iron Man armor. Peter shot webs at the weapons and yanked and then followed with taser webs. The other three guards ran to assist. They were quickly webbed up as well.

"How are you doing on web fluid?"

Peter tried the first door and found it locked. "Ok, but I don't need to swing back to the Quinjet." Squeezing the knob he broke the lock and pushed he door open. Two kids about his age were huddled together inside. One quick look told him that neither was Ned.

Iron Man stepped in the room behind Spider-Man. The two kids gaped at the two superhero's standing in front of them. "We're here to get you home. Stay in the room until we clear the floor, ok." Receiving a nod, they moved on to the next room.

Nine rooms later they had discovered two empty rooms and sixteen teenagers. Getting a status report from both teams, Sam walked into the hallway on their floor to start moving kids upstairs. They had decided to bring SHIELD closer so they could get the teenagers out of harms way. They thought all of the opposition at this point had been neutralized but they didn't want to take any chances.

Natasha had reported that they had cleared the bottom level. Getz had been caught but Tarleton was no where to be found. Bucky was headed back to the main floor with their prisoner. Clint and Natasha we're headed to the floor that housed the mainframe.

"We'll meet your there." Iron Man looked at Spider-Man and knew that Peter was worried about Ned. The students they had rescued didn't know where they had been taken. They just knew they had been separated before breakfast the day before.


	4. Rescue

Tony pushed open the door. Clint and Natasha had already cleared the guards in the open from the middle floor but he still had Peter behind him as a precaution. Clint and Natasha were working their way through rooms from one end of the hall. Tony and Peter started from the other end. Tony decided after the second room that Peter's method of entering a room was way easier than Natasha and Clint's, who alternated kicking doors in. Even with the suit on Tony could tell that Peter's anxiety over not find Ned was skyrocketing.

Peter was about to squeeze the lock on the fourth room when they heard. "I told you I knew the Avengers!" coming from one of Clint and Natasha's rooms.

"Go. I'll take care of the rest." Tony watched Peter skid to a halt in front of the room Natasha and Clint had opened. Turning his attention back to the door in front of him he let the suit squeeze the knob to break the lock so he could push it open. In front of him stood a room full of computers. His gut told him not to have FRIDAY interface so he retracted part of the suit so he could freely browse through the files the old fashion way.

Natasha walked into the room behind him. "Find anything interesting?"

"SHIELD's going to need their data encryption team to get through most of this but the coding I can access is pretty advanced. It's hitting everything from the financial world to DOT. It looks like it's an AI designed to take over systems at will." Tony stepped back from the keyboard. "FRIDAY, lets play it safe and disconnect from the suit. Passcode 'Armageddon'." He looked back at Natasha. "Ned ok?"

"He's fine. He and three other boys realized there was a problem the day Ned texted. Between the four of them they managed to tip off Getz. They've been down here ever since. I've got Clint taking Ned back to the Quinjet. I figured you'd prefer that SHIELD not interview him." Natasha hesitated a moment. "Keeping this to ourselves is becoming more and more challenging, Fury isn't stupid." Natasha knew Tony would understand she was talking about Peter and not the mission.

Tony scrubbed an unarmored hand over his face. "I know. I'll figure it out." He refrained from asking about Peter. He knew that Natasha's comment about Clint included Peter, she was just doing her best to avoid mentioning him in case anyone overheard.

"Why don't you head back to the compound with Clint. We'll wrap up here and either get Clint to come back and pick us up or hitch a ride with Fury." Natasha knew that Tony wanted to check on Peter so she wanted to make sure he knew they could handle the clean up.

Tony smiled in appreciation. "Just make sure they don't let anything actually interface with that." He nodded his head toward the bank of computers. "Some of the code bothers me. I just can't put my finger on it."

XXXXXXXXXX

Tony retracted the armor as he walked up the ramp into the Quinjet. Peter was pacing the length of the jet, occasionally glancing over at Ned who was talking a mile a minute. Tony pushed the button to raise the ramp. As soon as it was closed Peter retracted his suit.

Clint called back from the cockpit. "Ned, come up here. You can help me fly back to the compound."

Ned jumped out of the seat he had been in. "Really! That's awesome!"

Tony shot a grateful look at Clint as he disappeared with Ned into the front of the Quinjet. He looked back at Peter. He really just wanted to wrap his arms around him and make sure he was ok. He settled for putting his hand on his shoulder and squeezing. "Are you ok? No problems with your arms? No sensory issues?"

"No issues. It got a little loud at one point but Karen just turned on one of the lab playlists. It worked great! You're not hurt? Right?" Peter looked at Tony as if tying to make sure there were no injuries he couldn't see. He had been fine during the actual incursion. When he got back to the Quinjet and Tony wasn't with him he almost had a panic attack. Clint must have noticed because he had shoved a tracking device in his hands that showed where all of the Avengers were. Peter and Clint's dots showed in the Quinjet. Peter watched Tony's until it showed him headed back to the Quinjet.

"I'm fine. My fine, not your fine." After Peter's issues during his recover and after their week at the cabin, Tony discovered he had a whole set of parenting skills he didn't know existed. Peter had relaxed into their new relationship. A lot of the anxiety Peter had was wrapped up in trying to keep from seeing Tony as a more than just a mentor. Once he had let himself accept it, the new anxiety was related to Tony getting hurt. There had been more than one nightmare that had reared its head in the past couple weeks. When the realization hit them that this was the first team mission since everything had changed they had both been a little shaken. The 'don't ask if I'm ok until it's over' had come up out of necessity. Focusing on each other was going to end up getting them both killed.

Relaxing, Peter smirked. "Ned has a lot of intel. I don't know how you're going to debrief him though. He just got rescued by the Avengers. It may take a while for him to calm down."

XXXXXXXXXX

"Ned, you start next week in the software engineering department at SI. You need supervision." Tony stared at the teen sitting in the Avenger command center.

Ned laughed but looked between Mr. Stark and Peter, "Wait, you're serious?"

"I'll let you know what day but you need someone keeping an eye on you." Tony sat back in his chair and looked at Peter who just shook his head. "Lets go over it one more time. When you arrived at the camp they put all of the students to work on some lower level coding."

Ned nodded. "A couple of us started comparing notes and realized that it was just the interfaces for a more robust program. It actually reminded me a little bit of some of Peter's suits' interfaces."

Peter buried his head in his hand. Reminding Tony that he had hacked the Spider Suit was probably not a good idea now.

"Yeah, that would be the AI interface." Tony smirked at the look on Peter's face.

"So we put all of our individual pieces together and realized they were focused on things like the financial systems, the department of transportation, some utility companies. All stuff that doesn't have extreme security measures like the defense stuff. But, if you control those systems you can control a city." Ned looked between Mr. Stark and Peter. "Plus, we caught a look at some guys with guns and it felt wrong. That's when I texted Peter."

The com panel lit up. Tony pushed a button and Natasha's face came up on the hologram. "Tony, we've got a problem."


	5. We Have A Problem

"The SHIELD team that went in to decrypt the code was attacked. They're not sure by what." Natasha sent Tony a stream of data. "We've isolate the facility from utilities and have put a satellite block in place. We think we've cut it off but we can't be sure."

Tony turned to Ned. "Technobabble...now. Did you or the other three do anything? Something that would interact with it?"

Ned shook his head. "No, we talked about it. One of the other guys, his name was Basil, had some experience with worms, he called it a technology parasite. He proposed loading it to slow down whatever they were doing. The rest of us voted him down. Maybe he did it anyway."

Tony looked back at the hologram. "Natasha, find this Basil kid, find out what he did. We're headed back. I can go in and undo whatever he did."

"You can't. Tony, it's eating everything metal. Killing the power slowed it down but the team it attacked...everything metal was consumed. One guy had a metal plate in his head...let's just say he didn't make it." She glanced apologetically at Peter and Ned.

"Fine. No suit." Tony was already cycling through what he needed to do.

"No!" Peter stood up. "You still have shrapnel in your chest. Just...No!" The forcefulness of Peter's response took Ned by surprise, but not Tony and not Natasha.

"Tony, Peter is right. You can't go in. Rhodey, Bucky, Sam, and Clint can't go in for similar reasons. Steve and I can handle it. I know enough about computer systems to take care of it." Natasha looked like she was ready to disconnect. She had gotten the information she needed from Ned. She knew who she had to talk to.

Ned stopped her. "Everything is a dual system. Captain America is pretty awesome but he doesn't strike me as someone who handles a computer well."

"I'll go." Peter hadn't sat back down after his initial outburst. "I don't even have any fillings in my teeth. While I may not be as good as Ned when it comes to software I'm not half bad." He decided to leave off the part about how he could also handle more hits than any of the SHIELD agents could. The look on Tony's face told him it wouldn't be taken well.

"Tony, I'm going to go find this kid and figure out what the plan needs to be. At the very least I need you to bring Kevlar tact gear for Steve and myself. It'll be quicker than Fury having to bring some in." There was no way she was going to get in the middle of Tony and Peter.

Peter started for the door of the command center.

"Where are you going?" Tony jumped up and followed him out the door.

"To the lab to start printing plastic web-shooters." Peter called over his shoulder as he walked into the elevator. He hoped the doors would shut before Tony could get there and he could have a little more time to figure out how to convince Tony to let him go. He realized the flaw in his plan as he stood there with the doors wide open and Tony stepped into the elevator. FRIDAY let him get away with an awful lot but at the end of the day FRIDAY was completely loyal to Tony.

"You're grounded." The words were out of Tony's mouth before he knew what he was saying. Looking back after the fact he realized this would be only the first of many parenting fails.

"I'm not grounded." Peter tapped his foot waiting for the elevator doors to open onto the lab floor.

"You are not walking into an unknown situation completely unprotected with plastic web-shooters." The door slid open and Tony trailed Peter into the lab.

"Natasha will have everything figured out by the time we get there." Peter walked over to the 3-D printer and started working through the interface changing the design on his web-shooters to remove all of the electronically charged options.

"That's not the point." Tony paused and looked at what Peter was doing. "I don't think you want that option either. Change the velocity setting to a factor of 10." He watched Peter make the changes and start the process of manufacturing the web shooters. "It's too dangerous. You're not thinking this through."

Peter looked up at Tony. "I did think this through. If I don't do this and they fail...". Peter shook his head. "I can do this."

Tony looked at the teen in front of him that was currently giving him a look that Tony wasn't entirely sure he could say no to. "I feel like this is definitely something that I should not be contributing to, but if you're going to go in then you're going to have so many layers of Kevlar you may not be able to move." Tony was realizing rapidly that trying to responsibly parent a teen superhero was damn near impossible. He was fairly certain that most other parental figures never had to deal with the idea of letting their 15 year old walk into life threatening situations on a regular basis.

Peter grinned. "I can do this. I'll be fine." He stopped and looked around the lab. "You realize we left Ned alone in the command center, right."

”FRIDAY can take care of him. Come on, let's find some tact gear that fits you."

XXXXXXXXXX

Tony stepped off the ramp of the Quinjet with two bags slung over his shoulder. Peter refused to keep the black ski mask on any longer than necessary so he stayed on the Quinjet attempting to keep his identity secret from Fury and the rest of SHIELD. Tony was enjoying the fact that the kid had decided within five minutes of having tactical gear on that he hated it. Natasha and Steve met them by the Quinjet. Tony handed each of them a bag. "Where's Fury?"

"Keeping an eye on the facility." Natasha grabbed her bag and headed to the Quinjet to change.

"Underoos, you're clear. Let Natasha have the Quinjet." Tony turned and waited for Peter to come down the ramp.

Natasha smirked at Tony as she passed Peter on the ramp. Judging by the look on Peter's face he hated tactical gear. She would never tell him or Tony but she had just won $20 from Sam. Sam thought there was no way Tony would let Peter near the facility. Natasha knew Peter a little better.

"I don't know how people wear this for an extended period of time." Peter stretched his arms trying to get a little more freedom.

Tony looked at Peter in exasperation. "You can change out of it at any time."

"No, it's fine. I just wish it wasn't so tight. And heavy." Peter frowned as he squatted down trying to loosen up the material on his legs.

"Remember this next time you complain that the Iron Spider suit is too restrictive." Tony crossed his arms and stared at Peter.

Natasha exited the Quinjet a few minutes later as Steve stifled a laugh. He picked up his bag and headed toward the jet. "I'll let Natasha fill you in while I change."

Natasha finished adjusting the chest protector. "That kid Basil uploaded a worm. The AI interface Getz was designing is partially organic. The worm was originally designed to 'eat' the code, targeting the higher technology functions first. Before it could destroy the core programming it attached itself to the organic aspects. It interpreted 'eat' as grow and started devouring everything around it."

Tony frowned. "Did this worm have a name?"

"Technovore." Natasha knew the second it was out of her mouth that Tony was familiar with it.

”Damn it." Tony scrubbed his hand across his face. "On the plus side I know how to disable it."

"Ok, what am I missing." Peter looked from Tony to Natasha.

"Technovore is a worm I created years ago. I keep trying to get rid of copies but they crop up every couple years." Over the years he had run into a couple instances where someone had used a variant of the code without fully understanding what they were doing. That was definitely the case now. He looked over apologetically at Natasha, "Bruce and I used the core code to speed up Ultron's learning. This damn code just refuses to die."

"How do we destroy it?" Peter focused Tony and Natasha back on the problem at hand.

"You can have it loop back on itself but it takes time. At its core it prioritizes what it goes after. The more sophisticated the code or tech the quicker it goes after it. If it's organic and consuming tech you don't want to give it any more so you've got to occupy it with a complex code." Tony ran through the different options when he saw a grin spread across Peter's face.

"So math. All I have to do is feed it something like Goldbach's Conjecture or the Riemann Hypothesis."

Tony stared at Peter. "That would work." He was so used to the fact that Peter was incredibly smart that sometimes be forgot just how intelligent he actually was. Using unsolvable equations was brilliant.

"So I take it we have a plan." Natasha looked from Peter to Tony who both nodded


	6. I’m Cold

Peter yanked off the ski mask as soon as they were inside the building. SHIELD had retreated to a perimeter they had established and couldn't actually see the building but, Tony hadn't wanted to risk exposing him. He looked around the dark room that was a stark contrast to earlier in the day. They had entered while they still had daylight but the beams weren't penetrating enough to help much. To supplement, they had chem sticks, which Peter had called, much to Natasha's amusement, glow sticks for adults. They cast an eerie green glow over everything which did nothing but make the entire situation even more unsettling. "Do either of you hear that sound?"

"I hear something but I can't figure out what it is." Steve strained to hear. They had already determined that Peter's hearing was better than his but just slightly. "It almost sounds like he walls are groaning."

"Oh, I have never been happier that I don't have the same senses you two do than I am right now." Natasha looked around and headed toward the stairwell. "Come on, lets get this over with."

They made their way down the stairs. Steve in the lead with Natasha in the rear. The surviving members of the team that had been attacked had given them very little intelligence but had told them that the floor the computer systems were on had defense systems they hadn't originally detected.

Steve paused in front of the door leading to the floor. The door wasn't only shut, it looked like it was welded shut, or melted shut. "Peter, take that side." Between the two of them, they simply separated the entire door frame from the wall. Steve maneuvered it far enough away that he could glance through the crack only to have a laser to target him. He pushed the door back just in time for the frame to take the brunt of the blast.

"So it created lasers. Great!" Natasha commented drily. "Could you see where they came from?"

"Left side, about 20 feet down the hall." Steve looked at Peter, "Think webs will blind it?"  
"Maybe. It's worth trying." Peter squeezed next to Steve.

"Ready?" Steve looked down at Peter who nodded. He shifted the door and Peter targeted where Steve had indicated. He covered the wall plus some and waited to see if it would hold. Steve slammed the door back when a laser fired from the other wall and Peter skidded to the side. "Well, good news. Webs work. Bad news, there's more than one."

Peter slid back in front of Steve. "Let's go." He waited for Steve to move the door again. When he did, Peter targeted the other side. It only took three more times until he lasers stopped firing. Peter glanced around the hall and then up at Steve.

Steve waited for Peter to slide back again and pulled the door far enough to move through it. When nothing else fired at him he stepped forward and let Peter and Natasha through. "Let's get into the room and see if we can do this." He walked toward the room. He reached for the door knob. He pulled it back as soon as his skin touched it. "It's cold."

"Makes sense. It's got to be putting off a tremendous amount of heat. It would have to be trying to keep it cool." Peter reaches forward and touched the door knob just to yank his hand back.

"Let's be smart about this." Natasha looked between Peter and Steve. "Peter, ignore everything else and just get to the keyboard. Steve and I will handle whatever happens. Let me know when you need my help." She glanced down at his web-shooters. "Give me one of those. You'll need at least one free hand."

Peter slid off a web-shooter and fastened it around Natasha's wrist. He watched her flex her wrist and fire a web. He looked at Steve. "Ok. Let's go."

Steve stepped back and kicked the door, knocking it off the hinges. More lasers fired which Natasha and Peter both hit with webs as Peter moved quickly toward the keyboard interface. He could hear Steve and Natasha destroying things behind him as he focused on the interface which was covered in wires and some kind of organic material. Shoving it out of the way he started typing until he worked his way through the system. "Nat, I need you to input something." He waited for her to walk over to the adjoining interface before rattling off a string of characters for her to type in. He keyed in the companion code simultaneously until the screen in front of him unlocked. "Damn it." He jerked his arm back as a laser hit his upper arm. Flicking a wrist he webbed the target and went back to typing. "I've got the first part in. It's uploading. Nat, I'm going to need you again." He glanced over and saw Steve pull a laser housing out of the ceiling. He waited again until Natasha was ready and started calling out a string of characters for her to enter.

"How many more?" Steve asked, "its staring to feel like it did when I crashed the plane." The air was so cold ice was forming on the metal surfaces.

"Maybe two. Don't tell Tony but right now I'm really glad I have on so many layers. Spiders and cold don't mix well." Peter pulled his hands to his mouth to blow on them to warm them up. He was starting to have problems typing. He pulled the ski mask out and pulled it over his head. Anything was better than the bitter cold. He slid the other web-shooter off and tossed it to Steve. "Here. I need both hands." He went back to typing. By the time he was on the last round, his teeth were chattering. The laser fire had completely stopped. They were hoping that meant that the system was busy trying to solve the equations Peter had uploaded. He stepped back from the keyboard he was working on and walked over to the other station to see if he could gauge if the worm had started destroying itself yet.

They all looked up when they heard a horrific sound coming from the walls. It sounded like a dying animal. Natasha look at Peter and Steve. "That's what you were hearing?"

”It didn't sound so horrifying before. I wonder if this means it's working." Peter looked around the room as he shoved his hand under his arms to try to keep them warm.

”Why can't we just destroy all of this? Wouldn't that have been easier?" Steve blew on his hands to try to keep them warm.

"This code can live in the smallest piece of technology. Even a piece of data cable. I don't think we could destroy enough of it to ensure it was gone for good." Natasha looked over at Peter for confirmation.

Peter shrugged, "That's what Tony said." He glanced down at the screen again and saw it fill up with 0's and 1's. After a few seconds they started disappearing. He walked over to the keyboard and typed a command. The cursor just blinked back at him. "I think we're done."

Natasha walked over to the other interface and typed in a couple commands herself. Getting the same response she stepped back. "Let's find somewhere a little warmer. SHIELD can come in and clean up the rest."

XXXXXXXXXX

Tony had stopped pacing a while ago. Instead, he just stood in front of where Peter, Natasha, and Steve had entered with his arms crossed, staring at the entrance. He had told Fury to stay back until he called him. Blamed it on the possibility of Technovore spreading. In reality he just wanted to make sure if Peter came out without the mask on, Fury wouldn't see him. When the three exited he was surprised to see the mask on. Then he took a look at Natasha and Steve. Opening a channel he instructed FRIDAY to warm up the Quinjet. Peter had has hands tucked under his arms. Steve and Natasha were alternating between rubbing their hands together and blowing on them. "Capsicle..."

"You have no idea. It dropped the temperature. We think we got it. It sounded like it was dying and it stopped attacking us. I think it's safe for SHIELD to go in and destroy what's left." Steve stopped in front of Tony. He hadn't enjoyed cold weather since coming out of the ice and this just solidified his opinion of being cold. Even the warmer temperature outside wasn't helping.

"We can let them know once we're on the Quinjet. FRIDAY is warming it up." Tony looked at Peter. "Come here kid." Wrapping his arms around him he could feel how cold he was. Peter burrowed his head against Tony's chest trying to soak up some of the warmth. Tony could hear the faint "I'm cold" coming from Peter, his voice stifled by the mask and the fact that his face was smashed into Tony's chest. "I know. Let's get to the Quinjet."

Peter sat numbly on the seat that Tony had pushed him into once they made it back to the Quinjet. FRIDAY had taken off as soon as the ramp closed. He looked over and saw Natasha and Steve both bundled in warming blankets. Tony pulled the top layers of Kevlar over Peter's head.

"I need more layers on, not less." Peter grumbled in response to losing some of the warmth provided by the gear.

"No, you need to increase your core temperature which you can't do with all of this on." Finally getting him down to the black undershirt, he wrapped a warming blanket around him. "Pete, look at me." He waited for Peter to tip his head up. "What's the square root of 50?"

Peter frowned. He did not want to do math problems right now. He wanted to sleep. "7.071."

"Ok, good, your brain isn't frozen." Tony sat down next to him and wrapped an arm around him pulling him against his side. They'd be back at the compound soon and Peter could spend the next couple hours nestled on the couch covered in blankets. He wasn't overly concerned but did wonder how long it would take Peter to warm up. Natasha and Steve were both cold but not quite as bad as Peter. They had always joked that Spiders didn't like the cold. Peter had fried the heater in his suit three times during the colder part of winter but they hadn't really explored the underlying reasons why. Tony thought they might need to know if it was going to prove to be a vulnerability. Right now he was content with Spider Kid nestling against him for warmth.


End file.
